Hair highlighting is a process for selectively coloring strands of hair. Highlights consist of selecting small or thick strands of hair that are lightened, darkened or colored a different shade than the rest of the hair. The process also known as tipping, weaving, frosting or streaking, consists of applying color directly to the hair or using bleaching chemicals to bleach away some of the natural hair pigment. Traditionally, highlighting has been performed in beauty salons by professional stylists.
One of the methods for highlighting hair is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,111. This method includes a full cap tightly fitted over the head over combed-back hair. The hair is pulled through holes in the plastic or rubber cap with a fine crochet hook and the exposed hair is colored to create the effect of contrast or highlight. The necessity of drawing hair through individual holes in the cap makes it difficult for the hair technician to consistently draw out a strand of hair from a desired area without unintentionally entraining undesired strands of hair from areas surrounding the hole making for unpredictable end results. Secondly the highlighting patterns available are dictated by the distribution of holes in the cap. Additionally, coloring the hair roots, preventing bleeding of color to adjacent hair strands particularly at the hair roots, are other disadvantages of this method. U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,754 is another example of a hair highlighting method using the cap method.
Alternatively, the combing method of applying a hair treatment involves a comb, which is dipped into the treating liquid, and then pulled through the hair to be treated. Only relatively large swatches of hair can be treated in this manner and it is difficult to avoid bleeding of the treating liquid to those parts of the head that are not to be treated. U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,781 describes a method where a hair stylist parts hair into sections and uses a brush with a series of spaced tufts to brush streaks onto the strands of hair. The tufts of the brush are dipped in a hair colorant and retain the hair colorant until the brush is drawn across the strands of hair that are to be colored, thus depositing the colorant onto the selected hair. This method utilizes protective sheets placed under and over the strands before and after coloring the hair to prevent color bleed to adjacent strands. The width of the tufts and the spaces between tufts of the brush determine the width of the streaks brushed onto the hair. However, using this brush method makes it difficult to choose which strands of hair will be subject to the hair treatment. Hence, there is less control over the placement of the hair treatment and larger sections of hair are treated, resulting in a more unnatural effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,765 describes a modular brush for applying dye or color, with a brush body and detachable bristle modules so that the user can configure the brush to achieve a user defined highlighting pattern. Here, too, the use of a brush presents some difficulty in choosing and limiting which strands of hair are subjected to the hair treatment. The use of a brush results in less control over the placement of the hair treatment and, consequently, larger sections of hair are treated resulting in a more unnatural effect.
Another method for highlighting is by using a conventional rattail comb to section and separate hair to be highlighted. A rattail comb is a comb having conventional teeth, and a tapered, pointed extension or “rattail” extending from the portion of the comb with the teeth. In a hand weaving method using a rattail comb, a hair stylist forms or creates a section of hair by defining a thin rectangular like section of the scalp with the pointed end of the tapered rattail extension. The rattail extension is weaved in and out of the thin section of hair in an up and down weaving manner sectioning the hair into a section to be eliminated from highlighting woven below the rattail extension and a section to be highlighted woven above the rattail extension, this section is laid onto foil for highlighting.
The foil confines the hair so that the hair is controllable and separates and protects the confined hair to be chemically treated from hair that is to retain its natural color. After one section of hair is weaved and color is applied, the hairstylist moves on to create another section of hair, which is weaved and colored, and proceeds to repeat the process until the entire head of hair has been sectioned, weaved, and colored. The hand weaving method with the rattail comb is time consuming and requires a great deal of expertise because it is difficult to weave uniform sections in terms of sizing and spacing as well coloring consistency.
An example of foil highlighting is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,306, and is herein incorporated by reference. The highlighting process is described, along with the use of a hairdressing comb. Here, a hairdressing comb is provided which has hair-lifting teeth. Each hair-lifting tooth has a barb or hook-like formation at the free end of the tooth. There may be one or more plain comb teeth in-between the hair-lifting teeth, providing the spacing between the hair strands that are to be treated with colorant. A section of hair is scaled out and held as the hairdressing comb is drawn through the section of hair, with the hair-lifting hooked teeth lifting strands of hair away from the section of hair. These lifted strands of hair are then covered with highlighting preparation and covered in foil. The comb must be manipulated so that the hair strands slide to the closed end of the hook and yet do not become tangled on the barb or hook-like end of the tooth. If the hair becomes entangled, the user can start the process over or can apply the hair treatment with the possibility that a larger area than planned will be treated, due to the tangled hair.
Another application comb is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,153, where one side of the spine of the comb contains plain comb teeth and the other side of the comb spine contains major teeth separated by major grooves. The hair is combed and the hair that is located in the major grooves is the hair that will be treated. Each major tooth has a bore in it, towards the base of the tooth, near the spine of the comb. In one embodiment, the bores are aligned such that a shaft is positioned through the bores (via a sliding shaft in the handle of the comb), thus trapping the hair positioned in the major grooves. This hair can then be manually grasped for further manipulation. The need to slide the shaft into place to trap the hair and then to slide the shaft back to release the hair makes the comb somewhat complicated to use. In addition, it may be possible for the hair to get caught in the grooves or by the sliding of the shaft.
Another approach to hair highlighting is to utilize special hair combs to permit sectioning of hair and application of the color treatments. U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,420 describes a comb for treating hair by either a professional hair stylist or a non-professional. The comb includes tines with retaining areas between adjacent tines for retaining treatment material, such as highlighting gel. The comb also includes pairs of forked teeth at the free ends of the tines and channels to guide the hair not being treated away from the retaining area. In use, the comb is swiped through the hair and the hair is channeled between the tines so that the hair receives treatment material that has been previously charged in the retaining areas. There is little control as to how much of the treatment material is applied to any given section of hair. More likely, the part of the hair in first contact with the comb will receive a greater coating of the hair treatment, with the hair strand ends receiving a lighter coating of the treatment. This method can result in uneven application and an unnatural-looking effect.
Many of the methods described above do not provide control over which strands of hair are treated with the hair treatment material and which strands are not treated with the hair treatment material. In addition, methods that appear to provide more control over which hair strands are treated with hair treatment may also be more difficult for a user to use on their own head of hair.